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Negligently Causing Serious Injury

The Attorney-General sought the advice of the Sentencing Advisory Council on the adequacy of the maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment for the offence of negligently causing serious injury (NCSI) under section 24 of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic), particularly in relation to driving matters.

The offence of NCSI arises when it is established that a person:

1. did or omitted to do something
2. that this act or omission was culpably negligent
3. that the act or omission caused serious injury to another person.

NCSI commonly arises in the context of assaults or driving offences in circumstances where the victim is seriously injured, but is not killed. The maximum penalty for NCSI is substantially lower than that for culpable driving causing death, although negligence can form the requisite fault element for both offences. Therefore the key difference between the two offences would appear to be whether the victim dies or is seriously injured. The Attorney-General points out that ‘injuries sustained by victims of a car accident can be extremely serious and substantially diminish a victim’s quality of life’. 

The terms of reference suggested that relevant issues the Council could consider included:

• The maximum penalties for other offences covering similar behaviour, but where the outcome is more or less serious: for example where the victim is killed.
• The maximum penalties for other offences covering the same outcome (i.e. serious injury), but that require a different state of mind: for example where the defendant is reckless.
• The elements of other driving related offences, including relevant penalty levels.

The Council released its report on this project in October 2007.